Saturday, June 28, 2008

Urban Politics

I came across an interesting display on a wall somewhere in KL as Winson and I were walking back from the MACEE US fair.



















Roughly translates to 'Give us ashes, but not UMNO'.

I thought it was a pretty interesting show of the urban mindset of certain things, their views on the happenings in our political landscape, etc etc. I'm assuming here, but I do honestly think that it was probably a bunch of Malay youths who wrote the words. For one, it's written in BM, and secondly, older guys won't resort to such 'uncouth' methods. They'd probably print posters and stick em' on walls cause they're less rowdy and more civilized. :)

Anyway, the point was that youths are beginning to show their interest in politics as well, especially with all the buzz and excitement generated from the previous General Elections. This isn't at all bad or anything, and I think that it is one of the key ingredients in a healthy democratic system. Can you imagine a a place where the young fellas couldn't give a damn about whats happening in their own country?

The only thing is, from the pre-election period till about now, that anti-establishment sentiment has been running hot in the veins of a great number of voters and the young demographic of to-be-voters. Honestly, they have every reason to be, seeing how things have been handled in our country in recent and past years.

However, you can't help but wonder if this zeal is bordering on the fringes of fanaticism and blind-faith in the Opposition?

Recently, during the fuel price hike there were emails floating around questioning the apparent inability of Petronas and the Government in cushioning the impact of the increase for the good of the people. Some people, angry with the governing body, blindly accept the allegations and are quick to jump up and condemn. Whether or not such allegations are true is a whole other matter, but judging by such outbursts from our community of Malaysians, we see that the problem with us is that we always need someone to blame.

And I suppose this is the case for our bunch of Malay youths. For whatever reason they harbor resentment against the Government, they need to put the blame on someone, and so they throw objectivity out the window and shut it tight. What else should we call this but close-mindedness?

We're the urban youths. We're supposed to be the elite ones in terms of thinking and making decisions. Where are we going wrong? Perhaps its time for us to sit back and reevaluate our mindsets on things.

:) Jonathan.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"WE ALWAYS NEED SOMEONE TO BLAME"

it is kinda true la coz u always feel better when u put the blame on others..

am i right? who dare not to agree with me? hehe..

Jonathan Mah said...

cognitive dissonance, as Dr Reed would say. woohoo! I'm actually using some of those overtly bombastic terms she teaches us in class.